


Hate To See You Like A Monster

by flamebirds



Series: Batfam Week 2018 [2]
Category: Batman (Comics), Birds of Prey (Comic), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Batfam Week 2018, Batman!Tim, Batwoman!Bette, Huntress!Charlie, Like, Titans Tomorrow future, chronologically, occasional disregard for how things happened in canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-17 09:11:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15458034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flamebirds/pseuds/flamebirds
Summary: Joker's Daughter kidnapped Huntress, and there was only ever one person Batwoman would turn to.(Batfam Week 2018, Day 2: Trapped)





	Hate To See You Like A Monster

She felt like she couldn't breathe. Charlie, Huntress, a former Batgirl a key operative for Titans East due to her ability to 'bounce' had disappeared and Bette was freaking out. Years ago, she swore to Barbara that she would always look out for Charlotte. It was a promise she was hell-bent on keeping and the fact that nobody had seen Charlie all day was sending her straight into a panic.

She was scared that the girl had tried something reckless and gotten herself caught by Batman or the Titans. While she should have known to bounce away immediately, she was reckless and majorly impulsive. If Tim goaded her, she might not think, might get herself knocked out, and then what? Sure, Tim might see her as useful to have around, but Bette had seen what happened to Slade. She had tended to his burnt off arm, trying not to let the smell of cooked flesh make her throw up.

She came alarmingly close to killing that day. Seeing Slade like that, it hurt. They didn't have the best relationship and she had a million and one reasons to hate him but at the end of the day, Bette never gave up on her family. And, at one point, he was that. He was her uncle, her bitter, grumpy, asshole of an uncle, and they burnt his fucking arm off.

Karen helped her control herself, talked her down from doing something she knew she'd regret. However, if they did anything to Charlie, Bette knew nothing would stop her. She'd be out for blood and even if it hurt her to admit it, that included Tim's.

She was shaking with rage when the message came in. A file, one that was sent straight to her computer, and a little bit of investigating with tech supplied by Cyborg told her the point of origin was Gotham. A sick feeling settled in her stomach as she opened the file, clicking on the video.

The feeling only increased when a painted white face appeared on the screen. Duela Dent, a former teammate and someone she considered a friend once upon a time. Duela Dent, the woman who murdered her in cold blood. Bette still had the autopsy scars, courtesy of her death at the hands of Joker's Daughter. It had been brutal and painful and it changed her. That, and the Lazarus Pit and the whole new world she had awoken to.

But Duela now had Charlie. She could see the girl in the background, eyes focused on it as Duela made her threat clear, mentioned the bomb, the inhibitor collar around Huntress's neck that blocked her magic. Charlie wasn't going to be able to escape on her own. She was trapped, and if Bette didn't make it there on time, she was dead.

Her entire body was shaking and she couldn't breathe. The scars, the ones that the Lazarus Pit hadn't removed, felt like they were on fire and she found herself absentmindedly tracing one of her old bullet wounds, one from the fight that killed her. Bette blinked back her tears, swallowing her scream of rage. Later, she would grab Duela. Later, she would show her what it felt like to die, send her falling down to the darkest pits of hell where she belonged.

Now, though, she needed help if she wanted to get Charlie back. There was no point in choking on her pride; Gotham had changed in the years since she had last been there. There was only one person she knew who could find out where Duela was hiding Charlie and, as much as it pained her to do so, for Huntress, she was willing to ask Batman for help. 

* * *

The look of surprise on Tim's face gave her a sick sense of satisfaction. She knew he never thought she would willingly return to his turf. She had made it clear to him that Gotham, much like Tim himself, was dead to her, that he had corrupted the city beyond repair. It was painful but she knew the city Bruce had tried oh-so-desperately to save was broken beyond repair by the time she arose from the Lazarus Pit.

She never wanted to come back to Gotham. The city was completely different to the one she grew up in and that was all because of the man in front of her. Much like Batman himself, Gotham had changed, becoming even more brutal and ruthless than before. No wonder Duela loved it. For someone like her, it was a dream come true, a place with so many different hiding places and enough crime that she thought she would get away with kidnapping Huntress. And, well, she had, for the most part. Bette didn't think Tim knew she was active.

"What are you doing here?"

"I need your help."

Somehow, he managed to look even more surprised. "Why?"

"Duela has Huntress", she said. There was no point beating around the bush; that would only waste precious time. "She only has an hour before a bomb goes off and she's dead."

Any form of expression dropped off his face and he was back to being Batman, a cold-blooded murder. "Give me one good reason, Batwoman, just one."

She took a step forward, cautious, knowing a gun could be fired at her at any given moment. He had tried to kill her plenty of times in the past, though she always suspected he was holding back. Tim was capable of murdering her but he hadn't and whether that was a conscious decision or not, she was grateful for it.

"Because family doesn't abandon each other", she whispered. "And I know you, Tim. You don't want another kid to die."

He flinched at that. "Did she leave any clues?" He asked gruffly and she almost cried with joy. He was going to help her. Even after everything, there was still a little bit of the old Tim left in him.

"No", she replied. "From the background, I'd say she's hiding out in a warehouse near the docks. Does she have any former bases around there?"

"One."

"Then let's go."

She didn't want to wait for his reply. She wanted to find her, save her, and keep her promise to Babs. She refused to let anything happen to Charlie and now one of her worst enemies had her and she started to understand how Bruce must have felt when the Robins were kidnapped.

"Wait", Tim said, hand gripping her wrist and stopped her mid-run. She repressed the urge to flip him onto his side and make a mad dash for her life, knowing he wouldn't hurt her. "Are you sure you're up for this?"

Her lips thinning into a straight line. "It's Charlie, Timmy. It doesn't matter if I'm up for it or not."

She yanked her hand away, walking across the roof and jumping to the next one. She pretended she couldn't hear him, acted like the 'it does to me' was lost to the wind. It was easier that way.

* * *

The warehouse by the docks blended together with all of the others but Tim seemed certain that Charlie was in there and it had taken her a moment to realize why. The memory of her death was usually one found in her nightmares and there, she rarely focused on her surroundings. Now that she was outside of it, there was no mistaking it; that was the place where Duela murdered her.

"Are you okay?" Tim asked in a low voice, his hand almost reaching out to comfort her. "I can handle this if you're not."

"You'll kill her."

"Like you don't want to."

She dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand. "And? Bruce wanted to kill the Joker but he never did."

"And hundreds of people paid for his mistake", Tim replied coolly. "Do you want her to be free? To try something like this again?"

 _No_. Bette wanted her dead. "Of course not. But we don't get to play God, Timbo. That's not our job."

"Cassie is literally part God", he muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, well, she also fucked your best friend instead of you."

He glared at her. "Seriously?"

She smiled. "As your big sister, I legally have to."

His gaze slid away from her, a frown on his face. "Didn't think you still thought we were family."

Batwoman rolled her eyes. "I consider Slade family, you dork. I'm pissed at you and a little bit of me wants to toss you off a roof but... you're still Timbo. You can kill me dead and I'll still see you as my coffee addicted, moronic baby brother."

"Stop."

"Stop what?"

"Stop acting like anything is okay", he hissed. "You know it's not."

She shrugged. "So? Someone has gotta have a little hope around here and we both know that isn't gonna be you."

"We should move", he scowled, not so subtly dropping the subject. "Once we get her, I want both of you out of my city."

"And here I thought we'd all go out for ice cream", Bette drawled. 

* * *

Batwoman could feel her heart hammering against her chest as she and Batman crept into the warehouse. Bombs, lining everywhere around them, and in the center of it all was Charlie. Her costume was splattered with blood and her blonde wig was discarded, cast away to the ground. She looked like shit; from where she was at, Bette could tell Huntress had a broken nose, shattered kneecap and, judging by the slight bulge around her abdomen, a severely broken rib.

She let out a choked sob, resisting the urge to run to her. Duela was insane, yes, but she was smart, smart enough to set traps, smart enough to draw Bette into the last place she would ever want to be.

A hand intertwined with hers and she looked at Tim, confused at the open sign of affection.

"Go", he ordered. "I've got this."

"I'm not leaving you!" She insisted. "It's Duela-- you could die!"

"Like you did?"

"Always gotta bring that up, don't you?"

"You used to do it with Jason all the time", he pointed out.

She smiled softly. "Yeah, well, Jaybird and I were Lazarus Bros. Very different set of circumstances there, Tim."

"No secret identities on the field."

She scoffed. "As if people haven't figured it out by now."

"You'd be surprised", he muttered.

"Batman?"

"Yeah?"

She pulled him into a hug, short and sweet. "Thanks. Seriously."

He seemed to freeze at her action, body stiffening, but he didn't pull away and she considered that a win.

There was silence for a moment, her arms still clinging onto him in a vague attempt at comfort, until he broke it. "Go. I've got this."

"Nuh-uh. We're doing this together."

"You're impossible, you know that?"

She grinned. "All part of my charm, Timmers." 

* * *

They moved quietly. Together, they were a perfect unit, years of training and fighting together paying off. Bette knew she shouldn't trust him, by all means, _couldn't_ trust him, but she did. No matter what, she felt like Tim had her back as they moved closer and closer to Charlie, on the lookout for any crazy crap of Duela's.

They made it to Huntress without much trouble and Bette worked quickly. Her fingers fumbled slightly as she pulled Charlie from the shackles, letting the girl lean on her for support. She wasn't awake, not really, and she definitely wasn't coherent, but she was alive and that was what mattered. Too many people had died in a pointless war and Bette would not let a child join that number.

Tim helped her, looping her arm under Charlie's shoulder, and together, they made it out of the warehouse. Batwoman let out a shuddering breath she didn't even realize she had been holding in. Safe. They were safe and they weren't in the goddamn warehouse and none of them were dead.

"There's a zeta tube nearby you can use", Batman told her. "It'll take you to Titans Tower."

"Where I'll promptly be murdered by your friends."

"I'll go first."

She paused. Getting zeta'd to the Tower would be faster than trying to make it back across the border before Charlie died. There wasn't time and she hadn't planned it out enough, too caught up in her panic to come up with any solution. And Charlie needed help, quite badly. There were too many injuries for her to count, ranging from small bruises along her wrists to other, more concerning wounds like her knee.

She gave a curt nod. There was no other option available and if the Titans tried anything, did anything to Charlie, she would end them. She knew that Tim was aware of that and, unless he suddenly wanted his friends dead, then he was serious about helping her. That meant more to her than she could put into words and after that night, she made a mental note to try to get through to him. For far too long, she had seen him as a monster and hated it, hated every single twist in her gut when they fought. If she could change that, if she could bring Tim back to how he was before, then she would do anything.

"Okay", she said softly. "Let's go."


End file.
